Electronic systems such as personal computers, notebook computers, etc. typically use a hard disk drive as the main storage unit for the system (i.e., the storage unit on which application programs, operating systems and other software and data is stored). Hard disks are commonly used because they are relatively cheap and/or because they may have a relatively high capacity as compared to compact disks, floppy disks and various other alternate storage devices.
The operating speed of an electronic system may be limited by a number of factors including, for example, the processing speed of the system's processor(s), cache memory size, and the total amount of memory included in the system. The performance of the main storage unit may also be a factor that limits the operation speed of an electronic system. As hard drives operate by mechanically driving a magnetic disk so as to read and write data, it may be difficult to cost-effectively provide significant increases in hard drive operating speeds.
Flash memories are a known type of semiconductor memory. In recent years, significant advancements have been made in both the integration levels of flash memory devices and the price of manufacturing such devices. As a result of these advancements, flash memory devices are now being used as the main storage unit in some electronic systems. A flash memory module refers to a module that includes one or more flash memory chips that may be inserted into a memory slot of a computer or other electronic system. To increase the capacity of the main storage, additional flash memory modules may be inserted into the memory slot. In addition, as occasion demands, some flash memory modules can be removed from the memory slot. When a flash memory module is inserted into or removed from the memory slot, device information stored, for example, in a CMOS RAM and/or file allocation table (FAT) information stored in the flash memory modules may need to be changed.